The ISA season is here, and it’s time for providers to start competing for the attention of UK savers. An ISA provides tax-free returns on savings, and the next few weeks will see a lot of activity from the likes of Santander, Newcastle building society and Nationwide.

According to Moneyfacts.co.uk, savers should be looking at transferring their ISA, with a massive 92% of cash ISAs accepting ‘transfers in’. Cash ISAs that provide this option have increased from 183 to 272; the average fixed rate ISA is paying 3.24%, which is a positive contrast to last year’s 2.81%.

Darren Cook, spokesman for Moneyfacts, explains: “There is no excuse for customers to languish on a low paying rate, (but) it is important to check with your existing provider to make sure that there are no interest penalties to be paid before you transfer… this could wipe out any potential gains.”

The number of fixed rate ISA deals has doubled, whilst the cash ISA limit is set to increase by almost 50% from £3,600 to £5,100 on April 6th of this year.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 26th, 2010 at 2:50 pm and is filed under Money Saving Tips, Savings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.